At Beating of Wings, our dual goal is to create vital art while also fostering a community which supports the artists who are working to make that art. While we’re all struggling with the unpredictability that the coronavirus crisis has imposed upon our daily lives - between gigs and paychecks lost, events cancelled, the transition to working from home, the family tensions, the loss of routine, the concern for vulnerable family members, and the loneliness of social distancing - now more than ever we need a thread of humanity, creativity, and community that we can hold onto. We can’t come together the way we usually do, but we can work together to create a new model of coming together: we may feel caged, but our wings are not clipped.

So please enjoy this digital Beating of Wings event, “Fireplace Phoenix Songs.” “Phoenix Songs” was our first ever official Beating of Wings event, held in February 2019 at Val Larsen’s home in Pasadena. Then, we joined together to tell stories, sing songs, and share other performances around the theme of “rising from the ashes.” We allowed ourselves to be vulnerable, sharing the things that held us back from reaching our true potential, and then vowing to rise up and beyond those hardships. The evening ended with all of us, audience included, burning pieces of paper on which those hardships were written, symbolizing our commitment to continue moving forward in glorious passion and revolution. 

This year, the collective has created a remote, online version of Phoenix Songs: from our own homes, from our metaphorical fireplaces, from the depths of our hearts and our homestead hearths, we open up with one another (and with you), joining in a communal experience of song, storytelling, and stir-crazy silliness in order to rediscover the beauty in the world around us. Tune in to see what remarkable work the artists of Beating of Wings are bringing this time, all from the safety of your own home, in the convenience of your own time.